A) Field of the Invention
This invention is related to an automatic music performance apparatus, and more in detail, an automatic performance apparatus having an automatic accompanying function.
B) Description of the Related Art
It is well-known that an automatic performance apparatus that can add a lacking accompanying part by reproducing simultaneously both style data (accompanying pattern data) and song data for a automatic performance such as MIDI data.
Normally a plurality of style data are provided by music genre such as rock, jazz, pops, etc., and each style data is consisted of a plurality of section data following to a progress of music such as an introduction, a main part, a fill-in, an interlude, an ending, etc.
As the automatic performance apparatus described in the above, for example, changing information for the style data that should be reproduced with the song data at the same time is set in the song data in advance, and the sections of the style data are switched in accordance with the progress of the song, i.e., song data (refer to Japanese Patent No. 3303576).
In the conventional automatic performance apparatus, it is impossible to change the sections automatically along with the progress of the song data when normal song data without the setting of the style data changing information (generally most of them are such data). Therefore, a user needs to operate a section change switch (e.g., an intro switch, an ending switch, etc.) along with the progress of the automatic performance in order to perform a song that is rich in variations. A burden of the user will be increased, and it is necessary to understand a condition of the performance (when the section is preferably changed).